ORDER BY clause in SQL

The ORDER BY clause in SQL is used to sort the result set of a query by one or more columns. We can sort the results in ascending order (default) or descending order.

SQL Syntax

SELECT column1, column2
FROM table_name [WHERE condition]
ORDER BY column1 [ASC|DESC], column2 [ASC|DESC], …;

Default Order: Ascending (ASC).
Descending Order: Use DESC keyword.

Example: Let’s create an employees table.

SQL

CREATE TABLE Employees (
   EmployeeID INT,
    Name VARCHAR(20),
    Age int,
    Salary VARCHAR(10),
    Department VARCHAR(25),
    Gender VARCHAR(1)
);

Load the data into the Employees table.

SQL

insert into Employees values
(1, ‘Ashish’, 24, ‘25000’, ‘Electrical’, ‘M’), 
(2, ‘Kirshan’, 32, ‘30000’, ‘Electrical’, ‘M’),
(3, ‘Anjali’, 20, ‘25000’, ‘Electronics’, ‘F’),
(4, ‘Manjulika’, 30, ‘15000’, ‘Electrical’, ‘F’),
(5, ‘Katrina’, 37, ‘18000’, ‘Computer’, ‘F’),
(6, ‘Esha’, 37, ‘20000’, ‘Computer’, ‘F’),
(7, ‘Ankita’, 20, ‘9000’, ‘Electronics’, ‘M’), 
(8, ‘Meenakshi’, 30, ‘15000’, ‘Computer’, ‘F’),
(9, ‘Alia’, 37, ‘16000’, ‘Electronics’, ‘F’);

By executing the following query we can see the data in the table:

SQL

SELECT * FROM Employees;

The above query returned the following result:

Table: Employees

EmployeeID	Name	Age	Salary	Department	Gender
1	Ashish	24	25000	Electrical	M
2	Kirshan	32	30000	Electrical	M
3	Anjali	20	25000	Electronics	F
4	Manjulika	30	15000	Electrical	F
5	Katrina	37	18000	Computer	F
6	Esha	37	20000	Computer	F
7	Ankita	20	9000	Electronics	M
8	Meenakshi	30	15000	Computer	F
9	Alia	37	16000	Electronics	F

Sorting by a Single Column (Ascending Order) By default, the ORDER BY clause sorts the results in ascending order.

SQL

SELECT EmployeeID, name, salary
FROM employees
ORDER BY salary;

This query will sort the employees by their salary in ascending order.

EmployeeID	Name	Salary
4	Manjulika	15000
8	Meenakshi	15000
9	Alia	16000
5	Katrina	18000
6	Esha	20000
1	Ashish	25000
3	Anjali	25000
2	Kirshan	30000
7	Ankita	9000

SQL

SELECT EmployeeID, name
FROM employees
ORDER BY salary;

The above query will also work even if we are not selecting the salary column from the table.

Sorting by a Single Column (Descending Order) To sort the results in descending order, you use the DESC keyword.

SQL

SELECT EmployeeID, name, salary
FROM employees
ORDER BY salary DESC;

This query will sort the employees by their salary in descending order.

EmployeeID	Name	Salary
7	Ankita	9000
2	Kirshan	30000
3	Anjali	25000
1	Ashish	25000
6	Esha	20000
5	Katrina	18000
9	Alia	16000
8	Meenakshi	15000
4	Manjulika	15000

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